Mastadex writes: RIM's brand new BlackBerry mobile OS, due in early 2012, was expected to be called "BBX." But due to a recently court ruling against it, RIM has dropped BBX and opted simply for "BlackBerry 10." Software company Basis International said a US federal court in Albuquerque has granted a temporary restraining order against RIM, barring it from using Basis' BBX trademark. The court decision bars RIM from using the trademark at its Asian DevCon conference on Wednesday and Thursday in Singapore.

I bought a netbook for my wife. Loaded it up the first time and Vista took up over a gig of RAM on a machine with a 2GB limit. I wiped the OS and installed XP. it took up a nice 60Mb or RAM after tweaking. Your 260-270Mb of ram usage is insulting to me.

Mastadex writes: In the high-stakes cyber struggle to outwit repressive regimes – such as China’s – that spend billions thwarting the free flow of information, a Canada-U.S. computer research group believes it can tip the balance toward freedom. Ian Goldberg, an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science, is part of team that has come up with an anti-censorship system called Telex. Until a few days ago, when the joint University of Waterloo and University of Michigan team announced their Telex test running inside a computer lab in Ann Arbor, China’s cyber police may not have known there was a chink in their cyber wall.

I had an idea while reading this. There is a (mostly) historically accurate game called Europa Universalis III. Though it is too complex for a 4yr old to handle, it is suitable for 8+ year olds. I also pointed them to wikipedia if he had questions. I was astounded to find that the kid played the game for an extended period of time but also followed up on the history of Europe on wikipedia. The last time I talked with him, he told me all about the Polish-Lithuenian common wealth, and how vassalization works. Albeit his knowledge was skewed towards the strategies of the game, it was still accurate. It definitely made his Polish grandfather happy.

To state the obvious: Chernobyl, or Czernobyl as is referred to in the polish language, is a very well known nuclear disaster site. Those crafty Polish are starting to make a name for themselves in the computer industry.

People say we need another space race to kick off another golden age of technological achievement. Well, this planet seems like a fairly lucrative goal considering it's the equivalent of a 'new route to India'. We just need a Christopher Columbus to spear head this endeavor.